If you lost a bunch of followers on Instagram today, don’t freak out — your account hasn’t been hacked nor have you started being less awesome, instead the photo and video sharing network is on a mission to wipe away all the spam and bot users from the service.
Earlier this month, Instagram announced that it now has more than 300 million active users. That’s more than Twitter. But much like most social platforms, Instagram also has a fair share of spammers and bot accounts. Unlike Facebook and Twitter though, Instagram doesn’t want such users just for the sake of numbers.
Several high profile users lost noticeable amount of followers. Justin Bieber lost 3.5 million followers, while Barack Obama lost 200,000 followers. Funny enough, Instagram’s own account lost close to 19 million followers. If you lost a few hundred followers, don’t feel bad, as it can never be as bad as a user named @chiragchirag78, who woke up to find that he lost 3,660,460 followers. He ws left with just 8 followers before his account disappeared. Ouch.
Also, Instagram, when you are done wiping away spam and bot accounts, we’d love an update to the Instagram Beta app for Windows Phone. It’s been a while.
